And chear his grace with quick and merry words. Queen. If he were dead, what would betide of me? Grey. No other harm than loss of such a lord. Queen. The loss of such a lord includes all harms. Grey. The heavens have bless'd you with a 5 goodly son,

To be your comforter, when he is gone.

Queen. Ah, he is young; and his minority Is put into the trust of Richard Gloster,

A man that loves not me, nor none of you.

Enter Buckingham, and Stanley. Grey. Here come the lords of Buckingham 15 and Stanley!

Buck. Good time of day unto your royal grace! Stanley. God make your majesty joyful as you [of Stanley,

Queen. The countess Richmond, good my lord 20 To your good prayer will scarcely say-Amen. Yet, Stanley, notwithstanding she's your wife, And loves not me, be you, good lord, assur'd, I hate not you for her proud arrogance.

Stanley. I do beseech you, either not believe The envious slanders of her false accusers; Or, if she be accus'd on true report, Bear with her weakness, which, I think, proceeds From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice. Queen. Saw you the king to-day, my lord of 30 Stanley?

Stanley. But now the duke of Buckingham, and I, Are come from visiting his majesty. [lords? Queen. What likelihood of his amendment, Buck. Madam, good hope; his grace speaks 35 chearfully. [with him

Grey. To whom in all this presence speaks your Glo. To thee, that hast nor honesty, nor grace. When have I injur'd thee? when done thee wrong? 60 Qr thee?-or thee?-or any of your faction? A plague upon you all! His royal grace,

'Determin'd signifies the final conclusion of the of some act consequent on the final judgement.

Tis time to speak, my pains' are quite forgot.
2. Mar. Out, devil! I remember them too
well:

Thou kill'dst my husband Henry in the Tower,
And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury. [king, 5
Glo. Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband
I was a pack-horse in his great affairs;
A weeder-out of his proud adversaries,
A liberal rewarder of his friends;

3

To royalize his blood, I spilt mine own.

And all the pleasures you usurp, are mine.

Glo. The curse my noble father laid on thee,~When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paper,

And with thy scorns drew'st rivers from his eyes; And then, to dry them, gav'st the duke a clout, Steep'd in the faultless blood of pretty Rutland ;His curses, then from bitterness of soul Denounc'd against thee, are all fallen upon thee; 10 And God, not we, hath plagu'd thy bloody deed. Queen. So just is God, to right the innocent. Hast. O,'twas the foulest deed, to slay that babe, And the most merciless, that e'er was heard of. Riv. Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported.

2. far. Ay, and much better blood than his or thine. [Grey, Glo. In all which time, you, and your husband Were factious for the house of Lancaster;And, Rivers, so were you:-Was not your husband 15 In Margaret's battle at Saint Alban's slain? Let me put in your minds, if you forget, What you have been ere now, and what you are; Withal, what I have been, and what I am. [art. 2. Mar. A murd'rous villain, and so still thou 20 Glo. Poor Clarence did forsake his father Warwick, [don!

Ay, and forswore himself,-Which Jesu par-
2. Mar. Which God revenge!

Glo. To fight on Edward's party, for the crown; 25
And, for his meed, poor lord, he is mew'd up:
I would to God, my heart were flint, like Edward's,
Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine;

I am too childish-foolish for this world. [world,

see it.

Dors. No man but prophesy'd revenge for it.
Buck. Northumberland, then present, wept to
[came,
2. Mar. What! were you snarling all, before I
Ready to catch each other by the throat,
And turn you all your hatred now on me? [ven,
Did York's dread curse prevail so much with hea-
That Henry's death, my lovely Edward's death,
Their kingdom's loss, my woeful banishment,
Could all but answer for that peevish brat?
Can curses pierce the clouds, and enter heaven?-
Why, then give way, dull clouds, to my quick

curses!

Though not by war, by surfeit die your king,

2.Mar. Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave this 30 As ours by murder, to make him a king!

Thou cacodæmon! there thy kingdom is.

Ric. My lord of Gloster, in those busy days,
Which here you urge, to prove us enemies,
Ve follow'd then our lord, our sovereign king;
So should we you, if you should be our king.

Glo. If I should be?--I had rather be a pedlar:
Far be it from my heart, the thought thereof!

Queen. As little joy, my lord, as you suppose
You should enjoy, were you this country's king;
As little joy you may suppose in me,
That I enjoy, being the queen thereof.

4

Edward, thy son, that now is prince of Wales,
For Edward, my son, that was prince of Wales,
Die in his youth, by like untimely violence!
Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen,
35 Out-live thy glory, like my wretched self!
Long may'st thou live, to wail thy children's loss;
And see another, as I see thee now,

Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art stall'd in mine!
Long die thy happy days before thy death;
40 And, after niany lengthen'd hours of grief,

43

2. Mar. A little joy enjoys the queen thereof;
For I am she, and altogether joyless.
I can no longer hold me patient.-[She advances.
Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out
In sharing that which you have pill'd from me :
Which of you trembles not, that looks on me?
If not, that I, being queen, you bow like subjects;
Yet that, by you depos'd, you quake like rebels?--
Ah, gentle villain, do not turn away! [my sight: 50
Glo. Foul wrinkled witch, what mak'st thou in
2.Mar. But repetition of what thou hast marr'd;
That will I make, before I let thee go.

Glo. Wert thou not banished, on pain of death?
2. Mar. I was; but I do find more pain in
banishment,

Than death can yield me here by my abode.
A husband, and a son, thou ow'st to me,—
And thou, a kingdom;--all of you, allegiance:
This sorrow that I have, by right is yours;

55

Die neither mother, wife, nor England's queen!-
Rivers,-and Dorset,-you were standers-by,-
And so wast thou, lord Hastings,--when my son
Was stabb'd with bloody daggers; God, I prayhim,,
That none of you may live your natural age,
But by some unlook'd accident cut off!

Glo. Have done thy charm, thou hateful wi-
ther'd hag.
[shalt hear me.
2.Mar. And leave out thee? stay, dog, for thou
If heaven have any grievous plague in store,
Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,
O, let them keep it, 'till thy sins be ripe,
And then hurl down their indignation

On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace! The worm of conscience still be-gnaw thy soul! Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st, And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends! No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine, Unless it be while some tormenting dream 60.Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!

1i. e. my labours. 2 Out is an interjection of abhorrence or contempt, frequent in the mouths of the common people of the North. 3i. e. to make royal.

4

i. e. pillaged. 'Gentle in this place

implies high-born. An opposition is meant between that and villain, which means at once a wicked

and a low-born wretch. Alluding to his luxurious life.

Thou

5

6

Hath in eternal darkness folded up.
Your aiery buildeth in our aiery's nest :-
O God, that see'st it, do not suffer it;
As it was won with blood, lost be it so!

[rity.

Buck. Peace, peace, for shame, if not for cha2. Mar. Urge neither charity nor shame to me; Uncharitably with me have you dealt, And shamefully by you my hopes are butcher'd. My charity is outrage, life iny shame,— 10 And in my shame still live my sorrow's rage! Buck. Have done, have done. [hand, 2. Mar. O princely Buckingham, I'll kiss thy In sign of league and amity with thee: Now fair befal thee, and thy noble house! 15 Thy garments are not spotted with our blood, Nor thou within the compass of my curse.

2. Mar. Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled' spider, 20 Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about? Fool, fool! thou whett'st a knife to kill thyself. The day will come, that thou shalt wish for me To help thee curse this pois'nous hunch-back'd toad. [curse: 25 Hast. False-boding woman, end thy frantick Lest, to thy harm, thou move our patience. 2. Mar. Foul shame upon you! you have all

4

Buck. Nor no one here; for curses never pass
The lips of those that breathe them in the air.
2. Mar. I'll not believe but they ascend the sky,
And there awake God's gentle-sleeping peace.
O Buckingham, beware of yonder dog;
Look,when he fawns, he bites; and when he bites,
His venom tooth will rankle to the death:
Have not to do with him, beware of him; [him;
Sin, death, and hell, have set their marks upon
And all their ministers attend on him. [ham?

Gio. What doth she say, my lord of Bucking-
Buck. Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord.
2. Mar. What, dost thou scorn me for my gen-
tle counsel?

And soothe the devil that I warn thee from?
O, but remember this another day,
When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow;
And say, poor Margaret was a prophetess.-
Live each of you the subjects to his hate,
And he to yours, and all of you to God's! [Exit.
Buck. Myhair doth stand on end to hear her curses.
Riv. And so doth mine; I wonder, she's at liberty.
Glo. I cannot blame her, by God's holy mother;
She hath had too much wrong, and I repent
My part thereof, that I have done to her.

I

Queen. I never did her any, to my knowledge. Glo. Yet you have all the vantage of her wrong. was too hot to do some body good,

7

That is too cold in thinking of it now.
Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repay'd;
He is frank'd up to fatting for his pains;
God pardon them that are the cause thereof!
Riv. A virtuous and a christian-like conclusion,
50 To pray for them that have done scathe to us.
Glo. So do I ever, being well advis'd;-
For had I curs'd now, I had curs'd myself. [Aside.

2

The common people in Scotland have still an aversion to those who have any natural defect or redundancy, as thinking them mark'd out for mischief. She calls him hog, as an appellation more contemptuous than boar, as he is elsewhere termed from his ensigns armorial. The expression is strong and noble, and alludes to the ancient custom of masters branding their profligate slaves: by which it is insinuated, that his mishapen person was the mark that nature had set upon him to stigmatize his ill conditions. Intimating that much of his honour was torn away. A spider is called bottled, because, unlike other insects, he has a middle slender, and a belly protuberant. Rich. ard's form and venom make her liken him to a spider. An aiery is a hawk's or an eagle's nest 7 Mr. Pope says, that a frank is an old English word for a hog-stye, and that 'tis possible he uses this metaphor to Clarence, in allusion to the crest of the family of York, which was a boar. Mr. Steevens, however, asserts, that a frank was not a common hog-stye, but the pen in which those hogs were confined of whom brawn was to be made. i. e. harm, mischief.

Enter

Riv. Madam, we will attend your grace,

[Exeunt all but Gloster.

Glo. I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl.
The secret mischiefs that I set abroach,
Hay unto the grievous charge of others.
Clarence, when I, indeed, have laid in darkness,
I do beweep to many simple gulls;
Namely, to Stanley, Hastings, Buckingham;
And tell them-'tis the queen and her allies,
That stir the king against the duke my brother.
Now they believe it; and withal whet me
To be reveng'd on Rivers, Vaughan, Grey:
But then I sigh, and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them-that God bids us do good for evil :
And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
Enter two Murderers.

But soft, here come my executioners.
How now, my hardy, stout, resolved mates?
Are you now going to dispatch this thing?

1 Mur. We are, my lord; and come to have
the warrant,

And, in my company, my brother Gloster:
Who from my cabin tempted me to walk
Upon the hatches; thence we look'd towards
England,

5 And cited up a thousand heavy times,
During the wars of York and Lancaster
That had befall'n us. As we pac'd along
Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,
Methought, that Gloster stumbled; and, in falling,
10 Struck me, that thought to stay him, over-board,
Into the tumbling billows of the main.

O Lord! methought what pain it was to drown!
What dreadful noise of water in mine ears!
What sights of ugly death within mine eyes!
15 Methought, I saw a thousand fearful wrecks;
A thousand men, that fishes gnaw'd upon;
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,

All scatter'd in the bottom of the sea.

20 Some lay in dead men's skulls; and, in those holes,
Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept
(As 'twere in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems,
That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep,
And mock'd the dead bones that lay scatter'd by.
Brak. Had you such leisure, in the time of death,
To gaze upon the secrets of the deep?

That we may be admitted where he is. [me:
Glo. Well thought upon, I have it here about 30
When you have done, repair to Crosby-place.
But, sirs, be sudden in the execution,
Withal obdurate, do not hear him plead;
For Clarence is well spoken, and, perhaps,
May move your hearts to pity, if you mark him.
Mur. Tut, tut, my lord, we will not stand
to prate,

Talkers are no good doers; be assur'd,
We go to use our hands, and not our tongues.
Glo. Your eyes drop mill-stones, when fools'
eyes drop tears':

I like you, lads-about your business straight;
Go, go, dispatch.

1 Mur. We will, my noble lord.

SCENE IV.

An Apartment in the Tower.

Enter Clarence, and Brakenbury.

[Excunt.

Clar. Methought, I had; and often did I strive
To yield the ghost: but still the envious flood
Kept in my soul, and would not let it forth
To seek the empty, vast, and wand'ring air;
But smother'd it within my panting bulk,
Which almost burst to belch it in the sea.

Bruk. Awak'd you not with this sore agony? Clar. O, no, my dream was lengthen'd after life; 350, then began the tempest to my soul!

I pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood,
With that grim ferryman which poets write of,
Unto, the kingdom of perpetual night.
The first that there did greet my stranger soul,
40 Was my great father-in-law, renowned Warwick;
Who cry'd aloud,-What scourge for perjury
Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?
And so he vanish'd: Then came wand'ring by
A shadow like an angel, with bright hair
45 Dabbled in blood; and he shriek'd out aloud,-
Clarence is come,--false, fleeting,perjur'd Clarence,
That stabb'd me in the field by Tewksbury ;-
Seize on him, furies, take him to your torments !--
With that, methought, a legion of foul fiends
50 Environ'd me, and howled in mine ears

55

Such hideous cries, that, with the very noise,
I trembling wak'd, and, for a season after,
Could not believe but that I was in hell;
Such terrible impression made my dream.
Brak. No marvel, lord, that it affrighted you;
I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it.
Clar. O, Brakenbury, I have done those
things,---

That now give evidence against my soul,-
60 For Edward's sake; and, see, how he requites me!
O God! if my deep prayers cannot appease thee,

Probably, a proverbial expression.. i. e, not an infidel. is the same as changing sides.

Tt

i. e. invaluable.

• Fleeting

ut

5

But thou wilt be aveng'd on my misdeeds,
Yet execute thy wrath on me alone: [dren!
O, spare my guiltless wife, and my poor chil-
I pray thee, gentle keeper, stay by me;
My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep.
Brak. I will, my lord; God give your grace
good rest!
[Clarence sleeps.|
Sorrow breaks seasons, and reposing hours, [night.
Makes the night morning, and the noon-tide
Princes have but their titles for their glories, 10
An outward honour for an inward toil;
And, for unfelt imaginations,

They often feel a world of rcstless cares1:
So that, between their titles, and low name,
There's nothing differs but the outward fame.
Enter the two Murderers.

1 Murd. Ho! who's here?
Brak. What would'st thou, fellow? and how
cam'st thou hither?

1 Murd. Where's thy conscience now?

2 Murd. In the duke of Gloster's purse.

1 Murd. When he opens his purse to give us our reward, thy conscience flies out.

2 Murd. 'Tis no matter; let it go; there's few, or none, will entertain it.

1 Murd. What, if it come to thee again? 2 Murd. I'll not meddle with it, it is a dangerous thing, it makes a man a coward; a man cannot steal, but it accuseth him; a man cannot swear, but it checks him; a man cannot lie with his neighbour's wife, but it detects him: 'Tis a blushing shame-fac'd spirit, that mutinies in a man's bosom; it fills one full of obstacles: it made me once 15 restore a purse of gold, that by chance I found it beggars any man that keeps it: it is turn'd out of all towns and cities for a dangerous thing; and every man, that means to live well, endeavours to trust to himself, and live without it.

2 Murd. I would speak with Clarence, and 120 came hither on my legs.

Brak. What, so brief?

[dious:

1 Murd. O, sir, 'tis better to be brief, than teShew him our commission, talk no more.

Brak. I am, in this, commanded to deliver
The noble duke of Clarence to your hands:-
I will not reason what is meant hereby,
Because I will be guiltless of the meaning.
Here are the keys;there sits the duke asleep :
I'll to the king; and signify to him,
That thus I have resign'd to you my charge.

1 Murd. You may, sir, 'tis a point of wisdom:
Fare well.
you
[Exit Brakenbury.

25

1 Murd. 'Zounds, it is even now at my elbow, persuading me not to kill the duke.

2 Murd. Take the devil in thy mind, and be lieve him not: he would insinuate with thee, but to make thee sigh.

1 Murd. I am strong fram'd, he cannot prevail with me.

2 Murd. Spoke like a tall 2 fellow, that respects his reputation. Come, shall we fall to work?

1 Murd. Take him over the costard' with the 30 hilts of thy sword, and then throw him into the malmsey-butt, in the next room.

2 Murd. What, shall we stab him as he sleeps? 1 Murd. No; he'll say, 'twas done cowardly,|35| when he wakes.

2 Murd. When he wakes! why, fool, he shall never wake until the great judgement-day.

1 Murd. Why, then he'll say, we stabb'd him sleeping.

2 Murd. The urging of that word, judgement, hath bred a kind of remorse in me.

1 Murd. What? art thou afraid?

40

2 Murd. Not to kill him, having a warrant for it; but to be damn'd for killing him, from the 45 which no warrant can defend me.

1 Murd. I thought, thou had'st been resolute. 2 Murd. So I am, to let him live.

1 Murd. I'll back to the duke of Gloster, and tell him so.

2 Murd. Nay, I pr'ythee, stay a little: I hope, this compassionate humour of mine will change it was wont to hold me but while one would tell twenty.

1 Murd. How dost thou feel thyself now? 2 Murd. 'Faith, some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me.

1 Murd. Remember our reward, when the deed's done.

[ward.

2 Murd. O excellent device! and make a sop of him.

1 Murd. Soft! he wakes.

2 Murd. Strike.

4

1 Murd. No, we'll reason with him.
Clar. Where art thou, keeper? give me a cup

of wine.

[anon.

1 Murd. You shall have wine enough, my lord, Clar. In God's name, what art thou?

1 Murd. A man, as you are.

Clar. But not, as I am, royal.

1 Murd. Nor you, as we are, loyal.

Clar. Thy voice is thunder, but thy looks arehumble.

1 Murd. My voice is now the king's, my looks

mine owif.

[speak! Clar. How darkly, and how deadly dost thou Your eyes do menace me: why look you pale? 50 Who sent you hither? Wherefore do you come ? 2 Murd. To, to, to

Clar. To murder me?
Both. Ay, ay.

Clar. You scarcely have the hearts to tell me so 55 And therefore cannot have the hearts to do it. Wherein, my friends, have I offended you?

1Murd. Offended us you have not, but the king. Clar. I shall be reconcil'd to him again.

2 Murd. Never, my lord; therefore prepare

2 Murd. Come, he dies; I had forgot the re-/60 to die.

Meaning, they often suffer real miseries for imaginary and unreal gratifications. 2 Tall, in old

English, means stout, daring, fearless, and strong. ple shap'd like a man's head. Le. we'll talk.

i. e. the head, a name adopted from an ap

Clar